Box stack dumper



.1l w. sTEvENsoN Sept. 2, 1941."

BOX STACK DUMPER Original Filed Jan. l1, 1957 3 Sheets-Sheet l Syvum/vbo@ J2ME: W ST5 VEA/son,

LW L L m, w+ l@ w y ,fm w OWMNINQ. S Q Q @w H mw\ ww ...Mmlulm E a @wim H N@ QN S Sept. 2, 1941. i.w. sTEvENsoN ,BOX STACK BUMPER Original Filed Jan. '11, 1957 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 Nl! m w.. n S E M JA Sept. 2, 1941. w. s'rJEQENsoN BOX S/TACK BUMPER 3 Sheets-Sheet I5 gri/vm JAMES W JTVENSQN, y

w1 55mm/WL vPatented Sept. 2, 1941 PATE Box STACK fDUMPEn AJannes W. Stevenson, Riverside, Galli.; .Gladys Stevenson; administ Stevenson, deceased ratrix of ,said James 1V.v

'f original applica-ionamin" '111, 1937,serials, 119,989. Divided and this application April 3, n `1939, serialmvzsasss g e s zclaims. (c1.` zii-1.1L; Y

y. Thisinvention relates tothe art o'ffarticle han- -dling and particularly to the yhandling of yloaded v'and empty boxes; Y a -Whileuseful inmany industries, this invention thas'itlarticular utility inthe citrusin'dustryin l which -fruitfis handled in -boxes during the har- Nestf.and in' packing the fruit. For purposes'of illustration; therefore, an embodiment of vthe invention designed for use ,inv citrus "`packing houses is disclosed herein. v,

-.,-jCitrlus' are 'harvested by`.beins Picked from thetrees byV hand and are brought to the packing house from the groves in whatv are known as field` boxes. `At the packingl house ,these` load# ed'boxesfare taken from the Atruck and stacked .on-v-theiioor stacks generally ranging from live` .tov eight boxes high. When it is desired to removefthe fruit from these boxes and run it throughs series fof' treatments by which it is prepared for shipping and markehthe fruit must, bedumped'froin the boxes containing it and theI empty' boxes delivered :tot emptyfbox storage.

conveying'the empty boxes to asuitable point f Themanner of kaccomplishing thev foregoing objects, as well as further objects and advantages,

will belmade manifestin the'following descrip;

tion taken in connection with the accompanying drawings, in which:

Figure-1 is a diagrammatic cross sectional vievqvv of afi-preferred embodiment of-my invention.

i. sure 2 isa cross sectional viewtakenY on the line 2'-2gofFigure 1. v

r`Figure L3.` is a plan view` of` the' upper portion'` of Figure 1 showingLtlie drivemechanisin.

Clamp trucks are provided by which an entire' stack of boxes can be easily handled and moved from place tovrplace on the packinghouse floor by a singleiworken v f v 4It iis'an object loffmy inventionftovprovide a i machine to which loaded' boxes .may be delivered infthe'form of `stacks andgwhich willjdumpthe contents'from the boxes inthese stackslntof suitable binsor conveyors.

`IIn stack dumpen previously m us, there has,

always kbeen al pause between the dumping of the last.' box in` a given stackand vthe Vfirst :box

in the rnext-'stack which islongerthan the interval between the `dumping offsuccessivebboxesi in each stack. This resulted inl irregular feed-` ing (of `fruit `tothe Various. 'machines for treat-b ingV it,V` with corresponding decreasefin4 eiiiciency inthesef machines. ,A

It is herefore another td'provide ajstack handling device which will object of; my invei'ltion` deliver"individuall boxes: of series of .,stackssuc g cess'ively to a box dumper orvotherjmechanism lastbx of eachfstack, and the yfirst .box in the nextsucceeding stack is the lsame 'as the Ainte'rvals between the delivery ofsuccessive boxesin va given stack;` Y

This application is application filed' January 11, 1937,- Serial No. 119,989; In that 'application I have illustrated a division'of my copending and rdescribed a box stack dumper and restacker.

as these'two V4units may be lutilized inconjunc'- anyother desired destination.

sotha'tthe interval between the delivery ofthe 45 Figure 4 is a side elevational view of Figure 3 i taken inthe direction of the arrow! and illusmechanism on *l trating that portion ofv the drive thatside of :the machine.

HFigure-5 is a diagrammatic fragmentar;r de# I Awhen supporting tail view of arest' disposed as af boxVl in dumping position.4

Figure `6 is, a cross sectional View taken uri'flie'y line B--B of Figure 3;

Figure 7 is an enlarged fragmentary cross sec# tional viewfillustrating additional steps tdthose shown infFigure'l of the dumping of al box and just after `a new lstack has been received into,"A

'the machine. f

`Referring to the drawings, my box's'tack dumper is indicated-generally at;l l0, which includes a. frame I |,aloaded stack feed conveyer lI 2,*:a stack f elevator Ilya box dumping mechanism Il, and a conveyor l! 'for' removing empty boxesv fromthef.

ac ker or dumper "fand delivering these to a st SThe stack feed-conveyer 12" 'I'hestack feed conveyer l2 is mounted in floor 20 upon which the frame I I rests and comprises a pair of chains 2| which pass around idle sprockets 22v and )drive sprockets 23, the

latten being' fixed on' stub shafts 24 'Withers/enV sprockets-2:5; Provided on the chains 2l are stack spacing lugs 1l, A i The stack elevator 13v The stack elevator, I3 includes an endlesschain` j tion to"unstaok and dump loaded boxes and after 55 mechanism 30 having'a drive shaft 3 l stub shafts n am fn. n nordermfmmmmdsipnd be .1 Sim-,iw n z'zfnd @maken @as @aan uga pn-mee nf fond aan i.iv-,smart @waxed um m conveyerV l2. n v l The ,space nJust Lin mechanism fl! may be 'fl BMF tween the endless chung.; nu sis anginclined Il engage ,tkrp's ifwwhichfatali-tM rocklnz" this ongle, rearwardly@ JIheaIrVame-Il fo! may be termed a "dumping position, the bar t2 engages the side of this box and starts to tip it toward the right against angle iron fulcrum bar 85. As'the bar 82 completes its tilting action on the side of this box, the bar 83 comes into play against the bottom ofthe box and continues the rocking of the latter with the result that the box is dumped over completely on its side, coming to rest temporarily in the position shown in broken lines IBB in Figure l.

After the box under discussion has remained in the position i80 a suiiicient length of time for the' fruit to gravitate entirely therefrom into the hopper 6E, the arms 68 are lifted by the down ward movement of the short arm i3 and the engagement of the upper end of the eye li with the pin 10 as shown in Figure 7 in full lines. This lifts the box just as one of the cross bars 9S moves into contact with the empty box so that the latter is immediately shifted, as indicated by the broken lines |85 in Figure 7, onto the rollers E6 and empty box rails 91.

As the :tirst of the boxes is thus dumped and the empty box is carried away by one of the bars 93, the next box of the stack is being lifted up wardly into dumping position which is indicated by the broken lines |86 in Figure 7. As the box reaches this position the cross bar @2 moves into contact with the adjacent side of the box so as to initiate the dumping of this box as already described for the iirst box. In this manner the boxes of the stack S are successively elevated and dumped and the empty vboxes propelled by con veying bars 93 of the conveyor it along the empty box rail 91 towards a stacker such as liltisu trated and described in my aforesaid copending application or to any other desired destination. For such purpose, the rails and chains may tion relative to the dumping mechanismD which traction of 'each of the cradles t1 from out of the path 36 just after the lower-most box of each stack has been deliveredto the dumping mechanism it permits the next succeeding stack S to be tilted into place in the elevati@ path 38 so that the topmost box of the new stack is lifted into dumping position and is dumped with the same time interval between this and the dumping of the lowerrnost box of the preceding stack as elapses between the dumping of successive boxes in a given stack.A Thus the dumping of fruit in the operation of my machine iis at a uniform rate, there being no fluctuation in the interval between the dumping of successive boxes so long as the feed conveyor I2 is kept supplied with stack S.

While I have shown and described a preferred form of box stack ldumper designed for a` citrus fruit packing house, the invention is applicable to numerous other adaptations.

What I claim is:

l. In combination: means for delivering a loaded box in a dumping position; endless chain means; a pair of bars on said chain means; the iirst of said bars contacting a side of said box when in dumping position so as to tilt said box, the second of said bars then contacting the bot torn of said box to continue the tilting of said box past its center of gravity to dump the contents of said box; and means for conveying the empty box away. c

2. A combination as in claim 1 in which the said loaded box delivery means comprises a stack elevator which elevates a stack of boxes so as to deliver the boxes of said stach successively to said dumping position.

JAMES W. S'I'EVENSON. 

